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Regents Lift Suspension

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UW SYSTEM REGENTS LIFT SUSPENSION ON UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS

The Executive Committee of the University of Wisconsin System Board of
Regents voted Friday (March 22) to lift the suspension on undergraduate
admissions.

Citing assurances of additional funding by Gov. Scott McCallum and the
Senate majority, the Executive Committee authorized UW campuses to resume
"their admissions processes and enroll up to, but not beyond, their
instructional capacity for Fall 2002," according to the resolution
it approved.

"The suspension of any further undergraduate admissions was the
right thing to do given the uncertainty of the state budget process,"
said Regent President Jay L. Smith. "But with the funding assurances
we have received this week, we can get back to the business of admitting
and educating students and maintaining the quality of the UW System."

UW System President Katharine Lyall told Executive
Committee members that the university could enroll 5,500 more full-time students
if the final budget cut is no more than the $51 million recommended by McCallum
in his budget reduction package.

"I urge us to maintain our focus on serving all students we admit well
and recalibrate enrollment targets for fall 2003 and beyond, once our
final budget is determined," Lyall told the Executive Committee.

In lifting the admissions freeze, the Executive Committee directed Lyall to
monitor systemwide enrollments and report their status to the board. The
committee said enrollment targets for Fall 2003 "will be reviewed
and recalibrated as necessary based on the final UW budget cuts adopted
by the Legislature and signed by the Governor," according to the
committee's resolution.

UW-Fox Valley Campus Dean Jim Perry expressed his pleasure with the Regents'
action. "I'm very pleased. I'm now confident that we can move forward
and enroll the hundreds of students that are still seeking formal admittance
at UWFox for Fall 2002," he said. The Menasha campus has already
admitted 566 applicants for the next academic year.

Smith said he hoped funding beyond the governor's proposal could be found for
the UW budget so that even more students could be admitted. "Every
additional student we can enroll is a plus for the state's economic future,"
Smith said. "To really help the state out of this economic slump,
we should be enrolling more, not fewer, students."

Lyall noted in her remarks to the committee that the admissions freeze was
not uniform across the UW System, because some campuses were farther along
in the admissions process than others.

A hiring freeze enacted last week is still in effect,
Smith said, "to make sure that we do not commit more resources for next
year than we are given by the state."

"There was a perception among some that this was a political move by the
university. It was not," Smith added. "The real cost of educating
these students comes in the personnel costs - the faculty and staff that
teach these courses and (other) personnel costs represent roughly 85 percent
of our operating budget."

The Board of Regents voted March 8 to suspend any further undergraduate admissions,
saying it could not admit more students if it would not have the resources
to educate them. The regents' vote followed the Joint Finance Committee's
decision to reduce funding by an additional $21.8 million from the university
budget. Assembly Republicans then added another $44.6 in cuts, bringing
the total proposed reduction in the university budget to about $108 million.

With its vote on March 8, the Board of Regents authorized the Regents Executive
Committee to make future decisions on the admissions suspension on behalf
of the full board.

For more information about applying for admission to UW-Fox Valley, and about
the status of your application, please contact the UWFox Office of Student
Services, 920-832-2620.